Barney Guitar Hero

Barney Guitar Hero

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Testing away. Will this work? I dunno.

the futon critic - the web's best primetime television resource

the futon critic - the web's best primetime television resource

Three comedies got some good news yesterday as the Seth MacFarlane-produced "Family Guy" and "American Dad" as well as NBC's "The Office" all received orders for additional episodes.

The latter series, from NBC Universal Television and Reveille, saw its second season officially extended to 13 episodes. "The Office" apparently began its sophomore season with a modest six-episode order with the option to shoot seven additional backup scripts.

The Tuesday comedy saw its retention rate of lead-in "My Name Is Earl" improve to 68.57% in households and 73.47% in adults 18-49 in its second week (compared with 62.37% in households and 67.19% in adults 18-49 on 9/20/05) according to preliminary Nielsen data.

Greg Daniels, Ben Silverman, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Howard Klein are the executive producers of "The Office."

As for FOX's "American Dad" and "Family Guy," the network has greenlighted nine additional installments of the former, bringing its series total to 41 episodes. "Dad," like most freshman series, began with a 13-episode order. FOX went on to order six additional episodes prior to its debut (read the story) with 13 more getting picked up this past June (read the story).

Overall, "Dad" will have enough installments to last through the 2006-07 season, although it's not clear how many will actually comprise each season.

As for "Family Guy," the show's producer 20th Century Fox Television has quietly begun production on 22 additional episodes of the series. Said order would bring the show's "revival" to at least 57 episodes. The network itself however has yet to officially pick up the additional installments. Nevertheless, industry insiders say it's a formality at this point considering the show's ratings success.

The news means that "Family Guy" will most likely be around through at least the early part of the 2007-08 season.

Seth MacFarlane is behind both "Guy" and "Dad" with David A. Goodman and Chris Sheridan also serving as executive producers on the former and Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman also serving as executive producers on the latter.

Goodman Signs With 20th Century Fox TV

Goodman Signs With 20th Century Fox TV: "David Goodman, who along with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, exec produces the hit animated series, has signed a two-year deal with 20th Century Fox TV.

Under the terms of the agreement, Goodman will continue to serve as the program's showrunner, and will create new series for the studio.

Goodman's writing credits include The Golden Girls, Dream On, and Star Trek: Enterprise. He also was a co-exec producer on Fox's Futurama. "

TV Squad

TV Squad: "Holy crap! Not only has Family Guy executive producer David Goodman signed a two-year deal with Fox to produce more shows for the network, the ink has also just dried on a new 22-episode deal for the show. A fifth season of Family Guy is all but a done deal at this point. With Goodman's deal, I wonder if a succesful release of the upcoming Futurama DVD movie will bring it back to life."

The intelligent design of the "Family Guy" (9/24/05)

USNews.com: Culture: The intelligent design of the "Family Guy" (9/24/05)

Dismal ratings convinced Fox to boot the cartoon comedy Family Guy in 2002, but after ravenous fans devoured the DVDs of the Griffin clan's adventures, the network brought the series back–much to the surprise of creator Seth MacFarlane. Now that it's a hit on TV, MacFarlane's giving the DVD devotees a thank-you note with the straight-to-DVD Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin–the Untold Story ($30), which tells the tale of the Brit-accent baby's desire to prove that fat slob Peter Griffin is not his real father. With the cocktail-swilling family dog, Brian, in tow, Stewie flees to San Francisco to track down the man he thinks is his dad.

How are you like Stewie?

Only in my frustration with the world around me. He's a guy easily set off by the smallest thing, but–with the exception of George Bush–I'm not.

Is there a big temptation to get into political humor?

We try to stay away from it. Every once in a while we do it, but it's very easy as a Hollywood liberal to get on a soapbox. We have two stories this season. One is on the teaching of intelligent design in schools. Peter's Irish-Catholic father comes to town and gets the school to start teaching creationism. This sends Peter on a journey to find religion, and he ends up worshiping the Fonz. And we're doing one on gay marriage. Brian's gay cousin, Jasper, is getting married to his Filipino boyfriend, but Mayor Adam West is passing a law against gay marriage. We dance around the fact that one of them is a dog, and no one reacts to that [aspect], which is probably how it would actually be in this country.

Now that you're back on the air after being canceled, does Fox feel so guilty?

What people forget is that they kept the show on longer than other networks would have. It was probably the right move to cancel it at the time. And it was the right move to bring it back after it developed an audience through the DVDs.

I'm amazed you can get by with some of the stuff on the show, like calling that character "Asian reporter Trisha Takanawa."

That one came out of one of our writers noticing that the white people on broadcast news are always behind the anchor desk, and they send the minority reporters out into the field in danger.

So no one tells you what you can't do?

The FCC is more restrictive than it used to be. The trigger finger is at the ready. The message to us is it isn't sex and violence that's the problem–it's poop jokes. Public enemy No. 1 is doody. I feel like I'm living in The Twilight Zone. I want to do a mass mailing of the book Everybody Poops. It's tough for me to believe that's the real problem.

Toilet humor is getting chopped, then?

There was an episode called "Blind Ambition" last season. Peter wants to beat a world record, so he decides to eat the most nickels. We had a scene with him sitting on the john as many cartoon characters have in the past, and he's talking to Lois. But all you hear is a slot machine payout. That's benign compared to what you'd see on the local news, but it didn't make it. An example of something that did get in that episode is that [a character] is lying naked with a ceiling fan near his genitals while his friends show him pictures of women to help wean him from sex. I don't make the rules.

The nice thing about the DVD releases is that they're really financially important, so we've taken a hint from that and made them creatively important, too. So we have one edit for the DVD and another for the network airing. It's great that there's a venue for that. This release is an experiment, and if it does well, the next one might be a theatrical release.

Any idea of what that would be like?

It's something we haven't figured out yet. It's difficult to translate something that works in a half-hour to a two-hour format. Remember the Family Ties movie from the 1980s?

Unfortunately, no.

The show was a wonderfully written family comedy, but the TV movie was in Russia, and somehow [in the plot] they got possession of a microfilm. It could have been James Bond instead of the Seavers. So we don't want to do that. –Vicky Hallett

Family Guy - Volume 3 Artwork!

Family Guy - Volume 3 Artwork!

'Futurama' writer is elected to head guild

calendarlive.com: 'Futurama' writer is elected to head guild: "Animation writer Patric M. Verrone was overwhelmingly elected Tuesday to head the union representing Hollywood screen and TV writers, vowing to take a tougher stance with studios and pledging to step up organizing efforts.

Verrone, whose TV credits include 'Futurama,' 'Muppets Tonight' and 'Rugrats,' won 69% of the 2,012 ballots cast by the Writers Guild of America, West. Currently secretary-treasurer of the 9,000-member union, Verrone defeated 'Pirates of the Caribbean' writer Ted Elliott, who had been endorsed by outgoing president Daniel Petrie Jr."

Hannan Turk and Mohammad Hunaidi as the Simpsons

albawaba.com middle east news information::Hannan Turk and Mohammad Hunaidi as the Simpsons

The Arab satellite television station MBC will be airing an Arabic version of the American cartoon comedy ‘The Simpsons’ during the holy month of Ramadan, marking the first time such an attempt has been made by an Arabic channel.simpson



‘The Simpsons,’ produced and Arabized by MBC, is a comedy and a family drama. A number of prominent young Egyptian actors like Mohammad Hunaidi and Hannan Turk will play the voices of the cartoon characters.



According to the London based Elaph, the Simpsons, despite being a cartoon, targets an older audience and tackles family and social issues.



Hannan has been nominated for the leading role in the upcoming film "Ous Wi Lazi'" (Cut and Paste) alongside young actor Sharif Muneer.



The film, directed by Hala Khalil, marks her second film, the first being "Ahla Al Awqat" (The Best of Times), which won her favorable reviews.



Hannan recently flew to Canada to take part in the Montreal International Film Festival, which featured Hannan’s new film “Dunia” (World), written and directed by Joe Sileen Saab. The film also stars Egyptian singer Mohammad Muneer, who plays a young performer who meets Hannan, and eventually the two make their way to Cairo to pursue their dreams.

BLABBERMOUTH.NET - METALLICA To Guest On 'The Simpsons'

BLABBERMOUTH.NET - METALLICA To Guest On 'The Simpsons'

The members of METALLICA were in the studio today (Sept. 20) to record their voices for an upcoming episode of "The Simpsons". The show will air sometime in May 2006, so you have plenty of time to set those recorders. More information will be made available soon. In the meantime, click here to check out the pictures of the guys saying their lines.

METALLICA have been keeping a relatively low profile since completing their world tour in late 2004. The band is expected to begin working on a new album sometime before the end of this year.